West Virginia Fans, players and Coaches Showed Tremendous Class

Obviously, the University of Connecticut has been through a lot this past week with the tragic death of UCONN football player Jasper Howard, who was murdered last Sunday morning outside of the UCONN Student Union. The Huskies wanted desperately to win their game against West Virginia for their slain comrade.

The Huskies almost pulled it off, but Mountaineers RB Noel Divine scored the winning touchdown for West Virginia with less than a minute left to defeat the Huskies 28-24. However, to me, the real story was the wonderful compassion and class showed by the West Virginia crowd, as well as their players and coaches. They cheered when the Connecticut team came out with Howard's jersey. WVU Head Coach Bill Stewart and his staff embraced Connecticut Head Coach Randy Etzel. The Mountaineer players lovingly embraced and encouraged their Connecticut opponents. Once the game was on, it was dog eat dog, but the love and respect showed to UCONN was beautiful to see.

I know what you are thinking. If UCONN were at Georgia, Iowa, USC or any other program, the fans, players and coaches of that program would have shown the same respect and class. That's probably true. The fact that the WVU family did what they did is commendable and must be recognized. We hear enough stories about players, coaches and even fans coming up short in the area of behavior. The West Virginia University community put football into its proper perspective. The rest of us should do the same.